3.5 

Smokin’ Joe

By Joe Frazier & Phil Berger
Smokin’ Joe by Joe Frazier & Phil Berger digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

When boxing was bold, bright, and glamorous and the fights were the hottest sporting events of the year, Joe Frazier was king as the Heavyweight Champion of the World. From 1970 to 1973 he reigned. With a career record of 32-4-1 with twenty-seven knockouts and an Olympic gold medal, Frazier leaves little question that he was one of the greatest fighters of all time.

Well-known, loved, and revered as a gentleman and a fierce competitor in the ring, Joe Frazier speaks his mind in Smokin' Joe—about growing up poor and fighting in the first $2.5 million bout; about the early days of his friendship with Muhammad Ali and how their relationship changed; and about the often corrupt world of boxing and what really went on inside and outside the ring.

Personable, good-natured, and funny, Frazier's story is a real delight.

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Smokin’ Joe Reviews

3.5
“This was a detour for me that I surprisingly enjoyed so much more than I anticipated. The orality of the book was a wonderful surprise. I was/am trying to find historical uses of the phrase, "GOD IS KEEPING ME," in Black communities. The Mississippi Mass choir, of course, has a wonderful, widely known Gospel song with this title made in 2005. But the expression goes back way further than that because I heard it as a child. The choir's song is the phrase's living archive. I'm fascinated with what is happening linguistically and culturally in what/how something and someone is KEPT in Black memory and life as a spiritual intention. It's been DAYS of digging for historical references. And where did I land? With stories of Joe Frazier's mother in this book! SMOKIN JOE is the autobiographical telling of Joe Frazier's early life in South Carolina up until his boxing career. Because the book is told as if Frazier is outrightly talking to you (he has a collaborator collecting the stories), the book reads like a fascinating Black oral history. It's actually a deep story of a young Black man's life in 1940 and 1950s Jim Crow when heavyweight boxing was king. I can't say for certain yet if this is the first recorded history of my beloved phrase, but I'm so glad I got to hear it from Joe Frazier's memory of his mom, Dolly Alston-Frazier! Dolly is everything!”

About Joe Frazier

Joe Frazier (1944–2011), also known as “Smokin’ Joe,” was a professional boxer. During his twenty-one year career, he earned an Olympic gold medal in 1964 and was named World Heavyweight Champion in 1970. He only lost to two fighters: Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. An inductee of both the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame, he is considered one of the ten greatest heavyweights of all time.

Phil Berger

Phil Berger (1943–2001) was a sportswriter, author, and screenwriter. A former boxing reporter for the New York Times, he wrote more than a dozen books about basketball and boxing, including Forever Showtime: The Checkered Life of Pistol Pete Maravich, Miracle on 33rd Street: The New York Knickerbockers’ Championship Season, and Punch Lines: Berger on Boxing

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